July 2009

Stupidity ought to be labeled for what it is, lest we not learn to leave it behind.
Omar Abu Ali is serving a 30-year sentence for having joined Al Qaeda and plotted to assassinate George W. Bush and is currently an inmate at a federal supermax prison in Florence, CO. Last year he requested President Obama’s two books. The answer has now come denying the request. The prison’s officials, citing FBI guidance, said that one page from “Dreams From My Father” and 22 from “The Audacity of Hope” could harm national security. They gave no specifics, but the passages are from chapters on foreign affairs.
The books, written before Mr. Obama ran for president and before he had access to the intelligence given the Chief of State, have been best sellers for many months. What they say is not only a matter of public record, but also, give or take a few people, public knowledge. Given the length of Omar Abu Ali’s sentence and the restrictions of a supermax prison, it is difficult to see how these pages could really harm national security.
Not many details are known about this denial. Were they, it is conceivable they could be mitigating . If they were, would they mitigate an instance of stupidity?

It’s hard not to bear in mind that hundreds, probably more, were jailed in Teheran merely for protesting. In Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi is still jailed. In North Korea, two American journalists were tried and convicted for trying to obtain information about the reclusive country. The list of people in prison, house arrest or whatever detention who are tortured, harassed and or condemned for their political views, for what ought to be their right to exercise free speech, is very long indeed.
And then there are the excesses we engage in in the U.S. CNN has become too gossipy, Fox News too one sided, MSNBC is cultivating a liberal audience and talk radio is not only proliferating, it is also reaching for the sensational, the emotional, the superficial, the knee jerkings and all the opinionated rants time allows. Like many, I’ve decried them all. Suddenly after Iran, China et al, I remember anew that excesses are preferable to repression. If that’s the price of free speech, let’s all gladly pay it—but let’s all still work for a better way too.